It was a splendid spring morning. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. What music!
Nobody could sleep anymore.
‘Hammy!’, cried little Mousy, ‘the birds are singing! They ARE SINGING! Come and see!’
Little Mousy ran to the window and looked fascinated outside.
Hammy said to his dear friend, Chipy: ‘I think we have a lot of work to do with little Mousy. He doesn’t know anything.’
‘When we found him, he was a tiny little creature. Our goal and duty are to raise and educate him’, answered Chipy confidently.
Then he continued: ‘What can we teach him about the singing birds?! The only thing I know about them is that they sing beautifully.’
‘And that they travel.’ said Hammy feeling proud about his knowledge.
That moment, the window opened a little and Mousy made a few steps on the sill. All of a sudden, a blackbird, the one that had just made those beautiful trills, grabbed Mousy in its beak and carried him up in the air and on the top of the highest tree in the garden.
‘Chipy’, cried Hammy, ‘get the rocket quickly! The blackbird is going to eat our Mousy!’
Chipy and Hammy flew to the top of the tree and landed the rocket on a twig. They saw a nest, Mousy was inside it, listening to the music of the blackbird. It seemed that the bird was singing to him. The trills were high and long for a while, then short and cheerful.
‘Hey! Blacky guy! You sing heavenly, but why have you taken our little Mousy?!’ asked Hammy.
‘He called me!’, answered the bird. Hammy and Chipy turned their little heads to Mousy.
‘Yeah, I called him! He was singing like calling for someone and I answered and we became friends.’ explained Mousy.
‘You’re right!’ answered Blacky, the nice little bird, ‘I sing, to call my ladybird. This is how I show her what a great guy I am.’
‘And? Does she come to you?’, asked Chipy.
‘Always, I am the best tenor here.’ answered Blacky.
‘Where have you been till now? We haven’t seen you around?’ asked Hammy.
‘Well, I am a travelling bird, I and all my family and friends travel.’
‘Who are your friends?’ asked Hammy, he was happy that he had a great opportunity to teach Mousy about the travel birds.
‘OH, I have a lot of friends, the lark, the blue throat, who is one of the most beautiful birds, he comes from Alaska and goes to Asia, the red knot, who travels up to 16,000 kilometres, the swallow with the tail like a fork and many others. You should meet them. Some of them come from other countries and go to other directions than me.’
‘Why do you travel and where?’ asked Chipy very curious.
‘Well, my dear friends, when the summer ends, it gets difficult to find food. Day after day, food becomes less and less, that’s why we need to travel south. We fly to Africa. To northern Africa.’ started Blacky when Chipy interrupted:
‘And how do you do that? Do you have a rocket, a route, a map? Isn’t it too far?’
‘It is a very long way. We fly over lands and seas, when the sky is clear, we follow the stars, when it’s cloudy, we follow our parents at first. They know the route.’ said Blacky.
‘How can you fly over the seas so long; don’t you get hungry?’ asked Hammy.
‘No, we eat the whole summer and get a lot of fat under the skin. We don’t need to stop. Some of us fly over Bosphorus. ‘
‘Wow! we have a rocket, you know? We can get you to Africa.’ said Mousy happily.
‘I know, I know, but your rocket is too fast. You have no time to enjoy. I’ll take you to Africa on my back!’ answered Blacky, ‘and I’ll show you the world.’
‘Nobody goes anywhere!’ said Chipy. ‘There are so many things to learn before flying, Mousy.
Let’s take a map, first, and learn how to use it!’
Hammy and Chipy spent a very nice day learning about routes, countries, seas, travelling birds, singing birds, how to find food. They had a difficult job to do.
They had Mousy to teach.